Chapter 18: Satisfaction

Twilight licked her dry lips, the only audible sound being the flickering of her magical vortex, and dozens of other magical abilities, The air around their little trap was practically crackling with power. Beads of sweat could be seen on her forehead, this situation required a well thought out plan… something she tended to forget when it came to her personal satisfaction.

She stepped back a little, only to be reminded that she was surrounded, quite literally. Celestia’s strongest, and in Taka’s case most aggressive subordinates or allies were all staring at her, “Ehe… look, Celly, this entire trip was just a personal affair between you and me. Let’s just call it even and—”

Before she could continue countless, razor-sharp ice spears just barely missed her head. Of course it had been Mistral, her hoof pointed straight at her. The light-blue mare growled and lowered her two front hooves, her chin nearly touching the ground. She started to emanate a thin mist, the temperature dropping lower by the second, “Ice Age!”

The entire ground beneath her began to freeze immediately, Twilight barely manage to jump in time, using the crossguard as some sort of magically enhanced launching pad. It had been strong enough to fling her several meters into the air, the floor was now covered with a steaming, thick layer of ice. It was not the only thing the generals could do, a bright ray of light came flying towards her, Dawn standing on the ground, his right forehoof pointing at her. As the ray reached her, it was not simple light anymore, instead it was the general himself, “Too slow.” The older stallion used the momentum to pivot in the air, slamming both his hind legs into her side.

The force was enough to shatter the ice and hardened cobblestone beneath them. Twilight laid in the small crater, barely able to move, her body littered with bruises, the part of her flank where his hooves connected looked like she ran into a cow stampede. Dawn simply fell to the ground, landing on his hooves next to a smiling Mistral, “Good job, Dawn. You still have it in you.”

Celestia winced at the sight, not wanting to see her student getting nearly killed by her top ranking soldiers. She couldn’t bring herself to move, nor speak, the immortal being simply could not decide. What was more important, the feelings for her precious, little student, or her loyalty to Equestria and her subjects?

Meanwhile Twilight was trying to get back to her hooves, her magical connection to Yoru was unstable due to her lack of concentration, she’d be done for without her sword. The mare coughed up some blood as she tried to stand, almost instantly falling back to her knees, “Using… dirty tricks, eh? Two can play that game.” She weakly rammed the tip of her blade into the ground, the vortex still pulsing around it, the uncanny vibrations were sent into the ground.

Nothing happened for a moment, Mistral and Law already preparing their next attack. Suddenly a scream of incredible agony could be heard behind them, one highly armed soldier burst up in violet flames, melting his armor and slowly roasting him in an unnecessarily cruel manner. The smell of cooked flesh and burned fur hit their noses, causing some of the lower ranking guards to recoil. Once again Mistral reacted, trying to freeze the stallion for the moment, that did not slow down the flames at all, still turning him into a pile of ash. Then there was another scream, the high pitched scream of a female soldier this time. The chaotic fire engulfed her too, causing an incredible amount of pain in their victim.

The princess sat there, petrified, her eyes wide open. The screams of the innocent echoed in her mind, she knew this spell, this magic in particular was a personal favorite of… Nightmare Moon. She had to do something… the flames would spread around, inevitably killing everyone here without any chance of survival, unless the pony was an alicorn...

Twilight just giggled weakly as she watched more and more soldiers burst up in flames, their screams of pain and suffering were like a finely tuned instrument for her. This was far from over though, the lavender mare needed help if she liked it or not. While her enemies were still busy with their futile attempt of extinguishing the fire, and Celestia still too shocked to act, she reached deep into her magic, her magic senses trying to find a particular object, five particular objects to be exact.

Those five ‘objects’ sat around a table in the middle of Ponyville’s town square and chatted casually. Morning Blaze wanted to know more about her… allies, especially Pinkamena and Rainbow Dash were interesting. Why did they decide to join Twilight despite their different opinions?

“So… if I’m allowed to ask,” She gently touched the glowing, warm crystal on her chest, a spark of purple electricity arcing between it and her hoof. “Why are you all here? Why do you support Twilight so much?”

Rarity sat right next to her, laying her right forehoof on Blaze’s shoulder, “Darling, there’s no need for this tension. We are not some kind of evil monsters, just because we oppose Celestia. To answer your question… hmm, I’d say because she sees us as equals, not just any subordinates. We can do whatever we want, we can stay here and not fight if we chose to, or go out and cause havoc. We follow her because I think everypony feels safer around her and Luna, they’re giving us a choice, and we chose not to live under Celestia’s influence anymore.”

All of them nodded, only Rainbow Dash’s and Silent’s expression remained neutral, showing no emotion whatsoever. The light-blue mare spoke up, “Rare’s right, you know my story. I wanted vengeance for Fluttershy, because I thought I saw her die. But after a long talk and… other stuff with Twi, she explained it to me, and the others too. Fluttershy isn’t dead, Twi sent her away for a while, so that our timid friend does not get involved in it. She also showed regret for hurting me, it was genuine, I could feel it. I forgave her, and so should you, we’re all in the same boat until the end now.”

Before the yellow mare could continue, she felt a familiar warmth spreading in her chest. The crystal shone in a dark-purple tone, the light began to appear on the floor beneath them as well. All of them rose to their hooves, an almost black circle formed under every rebel marked with this special magic. Strange runes of unknown origins were visible on the circle’s edge, glowing in pure white.

Blaze looked around, this feeling grabbing her, wanting to take the mare somewhere, “I can… feel Twilight… it’s almost like she’s here, touching me.”

“Indeed, chaos magic, extremely high amounts, Twilight really learned how to control all of that dark power… Anyways, touch the crystals, it should teleport us wherever she needs us to be,” Silent stated casually. The fact that they’d do a mass teleport over such a long distance did not bother him in the slightest. It showed his immense respect and confidence for Twilight and her abilities.

Their bodies began to melt into the shadow, again not an unpleasant feeling, the darkness invited them with a gentle caress. One thing was very clear for all of them, Twilight needed them, and it was their time to return her affection for them.

Twilight managed to get back on her hooves, breathing heavily, her coat covered with crimson liquid, most of it was her own. She could not underestimate those three ponies, ever again. She still listened to the agonizing screams of the burning guards, eleven of them had died an extremely painful and cruel death so far.

It was just a method of stalling though, because the lavender mare felt the gentle tug of her darkness, her friends would be here any moment. With them they could manage to survive, and flee in one piece, maybe even take out a high ranking soldier.

Celestia’s left eye twitched, her ears turned frantically as the screams reached them. Her horn began to glow brightly, finally the mare found the strength to move. In an instant her divine hooves impacted with the ground, shattering it and unleashing a golden shockwave. It overwhelmed Twilight’s magic, extinguishing the fire and stopping it altogether. She heard her precious student growl at her, the young mare’s body looked terrible, all bloody and beaten. Instantly the surge of strength vanished, her confidence alongside it, this mare just brought out these… feelings in her, she couldn’t understand, nor explain them. The only thing Celestia did know, was that this situation required her full mental capacities.

“Do not underestimate an Arclight… Twilight. You can’t win this, surrender and come with me… please.”

The tug returned even stronger, five dark-purple circles began to form in a perfect formation around her. She chuckled faintly, “I can’t win? Heh...hehe, I already have.” All five of the strongest rebels appeared around her, their horns glowing, and bodies moved into a combat stand, in Flare’s case his blade shimmered under the purple shine. Luna could join them anytime, should the situation require it. Their expression showed nothing but absolute confidence, determination, and the will to fight for their leader.

… and then there was Morning Blaze, looking around frantically. Her eyes widened as soon as they spotted their old friend, and demi-goddess of the Sun, “P-p-p-princess?!”

The inside of the frozen shrine was much, much bigger than any of them would have expected. Fluttershy did not pay much attention to her surroundings, the magical exertion had drained her pretty much completely. The timid mare was simply not used to such heavy usage of any magic other than her own inert pegasus abilities.

Rost on the other hoof tried to memorize every little chunk of ice that laid before them, and there were many of them. The shrine was seemingly split into several floors, the main chamber was a giant room with an extremely high ceiling. He could not even see the top, which was presumably also the top of the mountain. Each individual floor was just a catwalk carved into the solid stone of the shrine, severals doors could be seen from where he stood.

The chamber itself was oddly empty, two with ice covered doors, one half-rotten door, and a strange platform in the middle of the room, no decoration or any sacred symbols of their land. The stallion walked up to the platform, the yellow mare needed a while to regenerate so she should be fine.

Four columns reached all the way up, they were built right at the edge of this weird platform, it had strange symbols carved into it, something he had never seen before. Also, copper, or bronze cogs were connected with similar cogs built into the pillars, “Hm… this… looks like it should move upwards… maybe we can reach the other floors.... or even the top.”

A small railing was all that stopped just about anything to be placed onto this odd machine, they could just jump over it. The only thing that even remotely resembled a lever for that thing was an iron panel with numbered buttons. There was a 1, 2 and a little pyramid, that was probably supposed to be the top. Rost decided to try his luck and push the first one, only a small ‘click’ could be heard, but other than that, nothing.

“For Heaven’s Sake... “ The stallion noticed three round indentations at the bottom of the panel, it looked like something could be placed into it. “Huh… Fluttershy, how are you feeling?”

“B-better… I think, this magic was exhausting,” She slowly rose to her hooves, stretching her legs a little.

“I am glad you’re okay. Now, come over here for a second,” Fluttershy did so and got a short report on all the things Rost noticed. “What do you think?”

“Um… w-well, we should p-probably explore this floor first. There are three spaces for something, and we have three doors to enter. Two of them are locked that means this shrine is… testing us? Maybe whoever built this machine did not want anyone to enter without… proving their worth.”

He thought about it for a moment, Fluttershy’s explanation seemed to be reasonable, “So… like a challenge? It could lead into a trap… those demons have lived here for a while now, and they surely aren’t alone. You’re right though… there’s no other way to let this machine move… if it does move at all. Alright, let’s try it.”

The timid mare nodded and both went towards the first door, they’ve come so far, no lousy challenge could stop them now! Right?

The entrance to the ancient, and for the most part, unexplored crystal mines below Canterlot was not more than a tiny slit, barely wide enough for a single pony to pass through. Applejack had a really bad feeling about this, not that she wouldn’t trust Sharpshot to a certain extend, but this cave seemed… off.

“Hey Sharp… do ya know where we’re goin’?” The country mare asked cautiously. They’ve been wandering through the caves for over an hour now, and the crystals began to repeat themselves. Blue, purple, pink, red, and everything in between, if the fate of this land wouldn’t be at stake, the orange mare might’ve slowed down, appreciated the beautiful gemstones.

“Uh… yes? The crystals should gain a crimson hue if we get near it. Other than that? No. I’ve been here only once during my studies, but did not get to explore this particular part of the mountain,” The stallion replied, these formations all looked the same…

“Ah have a bad feelin’ ‘bout this…”

Suddenly their ears were assaulted by an extremely loud scraping noise. It sounded like thousands of crystal grinded against each other. The stallion lit his torch, they were at least prepared for that, the crystals also emanated a certain, eerie glow, so it wasn’t too bad. A giant crystal formation began to move right before them, short ‘arm’ crystal, ending in a spike moved towards them.

Sharpshot’s Bow-blade was drawn almost immediately, there was no room for hesitation. AJ just stood behind him, suddenly paralyzed with fear as the moving crystal groaned. What was this? This thing would be defeated in no time with the help of her friend… but now, she was alone with this still suspicious stallion.

The stallion began his attack, swinging at the massive arm with his coiled sword, the sound of metal clashing against stone could be heard in the darkness. His attack did not more than a little dent in the crystal, “This thing’s tough… Applejack, let’s—”

An arm of the golem hit him with full force before he could speak any further. The stallion was thrown backwards, smashing against the wall behind the earth pony. Applejack turned around, her face full of fear and worry, “No! Sharpshot!”

She ran over to him and tried to support his weight. As the shine of the weakly flickering torch touched his body, it was almost enough to make her drop him. The stallion’s entire side was bruised and bloody, a deep gash running along the entire length of his body, almost slicing his throat open. Crimson liquid began to colour her coat red, the warmth splashing against her. Sharp coughed, another considerable amount of life juice left his body.

Without a second of hesitation the mare picked him up and ran, she ran and ran and ran, into the deepest depths of the mountain. She finally stopped as the groans of the golem stopped and after checking his heartbeat. Luckily she had some gauze with her, wrapping the medical cloth tightly around his side. It soaked up the blood almost instantly, but made the bleeding stop for now.

“Hey, Sharp, don’t leave me!” The mare gave him some water from her canteen, he merely groaned, only half conscious.

“I… hate… crystals...” was all he could say, wincing from the pain every now and then. She decided they’d stay here… wherever ‘here’ was. The country mare had accidentally dropped the torch while carrying him, so they sat in almost complete darkness, only the faint glow of the crystals let their shadows dance on the wall.

Far above them, in the glorious capital of Equestria, Celestia’s eyes widened in shock, not only did her student just cast an extremely powerful shadow-travel spell, but the summoned ponies were her true worries, “Morning Blaze? Rainbow Dash? What are you doing?”

The lavender mare panted heavily, she managed to stay conscious, that was all that mattered right now. She couldn’t help but show a cocky smile, “Surprised… hah… Celestia? It seems like you… taught me too well. My methods of leading may be… quite harsh, but they are effective! And I see my friends as equals, not some random tool to discard.”

Rarity looked over Celestia’s small trap unit and glared at them angrily, “Darling, mind telling us what exactly happened here? This was not part of your plan, or was it?”

The giant, black blade was lodged inside the ground next to her, offering support for the exhausted mare, who was leaning against the blade, her body beaten, bloody on some spots, it even looked like she’d coughed up some blood not long ago, “No… I just talked with the bitch princess herself over there, but it looked like I underestimated her sensory abilities… Thank you all for answering my summon, give me some time to regenerate, then I can create a passage back into the city.”

Silent Flare laughed, his blade engulfed with a green-colored, wild gale, it looked like a miniature tornado was forming around his sword, “No problem, expect some casualties on her side.”

Rainbow Dash stayed closely to the injured Twilight, kissing her neck, trying to comfort her, “I’ll stay here… with you, Twi. No need to worry, our friends got this.” It just felt right for her to say these things, maybe they weren’t even her own thoughts at this point, tainted and corrupted by the Nightmare, but all of that didn’t matter, she felt happy.

A certain, former captain of the Solar Guard did not quite think so… yet, “C-Celestia?! W-what is going on here?”

“I could ask you the same thing, old friend… You decided to betray me? Now of all times?” The Princess of the Sun asked bitterly.

“N-no! It’s just… I… I can’t…. I’ll stay with her… for a while,” Blaze stammered, not finding the right ways to explain her current situation.

Celestia had her suspicious about what was going on, but kept quiet. It was not the right time for that anyway, “Capture them! None of them dies! Especially not Twilight, only use disabling spells!”

Hell broke loose in the Castle’s garden, Twilight didn’t have a chance to look around earlier, this illusion must’ve been stronger than she’d thought. Celestia managed to trick Twilight’s magic sense.

Silent charged into a large group of heavily armed ponies, his first blood followed almost immediately after. A light strike with his blade was enough to unleash a raging tornado, picking up around a dozen soldiers, quite literally slicing them into tiny pieces with this cutting storm, “Oh it’s been so long!”

The fashionista had to face two of Celestia’ strongest soldiers at the same time, Dawn and Mistral. The mare in the blue suit had a devilish smile on her face, “This time I’ll make sure you’ll stay here.” Rarity stepped back slightly, her horn preparing a spell to counter their next attacks.

Suddenly she felt a huge boost, her magic being kicked into new heights, the white mare turned around to see Twilight’s horn glowing brightly. Both smiled, this was her blessing. Determination found its way into her expression, “You’ll wish that you had killed me back then!”

Dawn was the first to attack, closing the distance between them in under a second, his hoof ready to kick her into oblivion. He had aimed a little bit too high though, the kick hitting her face with full force, but instead of collapsing unconscious, it was Dawn who backed off, without his light elemental power, it would be broken more than once.

“What? How’s that even possible?” He looked over to Rarity, who was smiling like a little foal. The side of her face that got hit with his kick had been transformed, or coated with a layer of crystals. They must’ve been as hard as diamonds if they were able to block an attack from a general. It changed back, showing a completely unharmed, and as ever, gorgeous face of the seamstress.

“You’re not the only one with powerful magic!” She shouted, feeling Twilight’s intense magic flow through her veins was… exhilarating. These spells had never worked during their normal training, but now with her help they were a walk in the park.

Merely thirty meters away from them a certain sword carrying stallion pulled his razor sharp blade out of his last remaining victim. Over fifty lower ranking soldiers agreed to join in on Celestia’s personal plan. And now the Princess of the Sun had to contact a lot of soon to be despaired families. Flare was not interested in any of this, the beige stallion revelled in the death of his, and Twilight’s enemies. The only thing he respected was a good foresight, and strength.

He smiled and looked around the war-torn gardens of his former home. Rarity was surprisingly standing her ground against Dawn and Mistral, Silent had never expected the fashionista to be capable of such a unique magic. Around him laid the dismembered remains of his former ‘friends’ and comrades, but there he was, smiling over their deaths. They were weak, and did not deserve to be called anything other than pathetic.

The magic around him shifted almost unnoticeably, the beige stallion jumped backwards, an almost one meter deep crater was now there where he just stood a split second ago. The attack had been incredibly fast, but this was unmistakably a lightning bolt that nearly turned him into a pile of burned flesh and bones.

Another stallion approached him, without even the tiniest trace of fear, or doubt. Flare growled, who else but this pony. White fur, a wild, blue hairstyle, and a skull with crossed lightning bolts on his coat… it was the Captain of Celestia’s First Division, Thunder ‘Lightning Storm’ Flare.

“Heh, fast reflexes, but that was to be expected. Long time no see, younger brother!” Thunder shouted, slowly stepping ever closer. Twilight, who was only about a dozen meters away, had watched the impressive magical attack, her eyes widening as she heard Thunder’s words.

“Hey Silent, you two are related?” She asked quickly, trying to maintain her concentration, otherwise Rarity would die.

He glared angrily at his older brother, “Hardly. We have the same mother, that is all. We never got along, not even after we both joined the Royal Guard.”

“Now, now, how could you say that, Silent? We’re family after all! Ahahaha!” Sparks of blue electricity could be seen all around his body. He was not quite as dangerous as a general, but underestimating him would be foolish. The white stallion held his right front hoof in the air and summoned what looked like a normal steel chain. Silent saw through that immediately, the steel was highly enchanted, able to amplify the voltage of his electricity by a margin.

He wrapped it around his forehoof, the range of it was impressive too, about three meters if swung correctly. Thunder let it rotate, electricity arced around it, becoming stronger and more dangerous. In a few seconds he’d be able to attack him with the same strength as his first attack had.

“Let’s have some fun, like in the good old days.”

Pinkie was the last of the bunch, that had sworn her loyalty towards the lavender mare behind her. Dashie was comforting Twilight, and Morning Blaze just stared at Celestia, so it was her duty to protect them, never again would they suffer because she was too weak! Her opponents worried her greatly though, her hair flattened like usual in these situations.

A very angry Law and an emotionless Eclipse were her opponents. It would just be stalling though, she didn’t have any magic to attack them with, and the pink mare couldn’t even touch Law without getting severe burns. She had to use her agility to stall them as long as possible.

“Get out of my way, Pinkamena D. Pie! You criminal scums will all face justice, but Twilight Sparkle shall be the first one!” He shouted angrily, his body heating up.

“Sorry hot head, can’t let you take the queen so easily. I am your opponent!” Pinkie replied, her demeanour changed completely while she was on a battlefield, this time it was a good change though. It’d keep her alive… hopefully.

Without any trace of danger she dodged to her right, a split second later an invisible, black chain appeared right where she stood. A binding spell cast by Eclipse, and a great explosion soon followed. Pinkie jumped towards her opponents, avoiding the ground changing to hot lava before it even happened. This continued for another two minutes, every time they thought about attacking her, she dodged immediately. Beads of sweat formed all over her body and the earth pony panted heavily.

“How is this possible?! You can’t cast magic! You’re just an earth pony!” Law shouted angrily, having enough of her stalling. Eclipse just stared at her, keeping her usual composure, she was more of a support than an actual threat, but as known, quiet waters run deep.

The pink mare ran to her right, narrowly avoiding a stream of hellfire, “I… have… no idea… hah, what… you’re… talking about.” This was the first time she was fighting anything at all, except the last time she was here. It was like a… shout, she heard their inner voices tell her their next attack. Pinkie had absolutely no idea what it was, but ‘it’ was keeping her alive and didn’t exhaust her too much.

Law changed his front hooves into cooled lava, creating smouldering pieces of solid material, without much special effect he began to charge at Pinkie, trying to kill her. Every attack was another punch or kick into thin air, barely missing the annoying pony, but still not hitting her not matter how hard he tried.

“ARGH! Fine! If I can’t kill you, I’ll just kill Twilight now!” He formed an enormous projectile out of extremely hot lava, shooting it into the air. Pinkie could only watch as the meteor like attack fell towards Twilight with alarming speed.

“Twilight! Watch out!” The pink mare ran towards her, but heard the ‘voice’ of this other mare revealing a crippling strike to her left hind leg. She rolled to her right, avoiding a lost leg. Eclipse’s true weapon came forth, a massive scythe, almost two times as big as herself. The black steel reflecting the twilight. Its long grip was decorated with symbols of death, skulls and other macabre things.

“So you’re able to predict the future, Pinkamena. Interesting,” She stated quietly. Her weapon hovered next to the emotionless captain.

“No… I don’t think I am. But I’ll fight you if you stand in my way!”

The gigantic projectiles was only about a meter away from a wide eyed Twilight, she still had to focus on Rarity and protecting the others, this would hurt… a lot. The lavender mare closed her eyes and waited, but nothing happened, only the sound of metal clashing against stone and an intense heat.

As she looked again Morning Blaze was standing before her, the yellow mare’s face had a determined expression. No fear or doubt could be seen anymore. Her flaming rapier had blocked the lava projectile, she struggled to stop its sheer force to crush them both. Twilight reacted instantly and shared her magic with Blaze as well.

The captain’s weapon flickered more brightly, and with one quick slash the two separate meteor pieces flew past them. Causing a massive explosion far in the distance. The power faded as quickly as it came, but she stood proud, protecting her… former student, “You will not lay one hoof at her, Law!”

Twilight smiled, but her smile on the inside was even wider, almost devilish. So her magic worked on her after all, she just needed to be patient with Blaze, soon the lavender mare had another skilled rebel in her hooves.

Law approached his former companion, “So you’re too far gone… Fine, then you have to die too!”